Hit and Miss
by xGraybackx
Summary: Neji predicted something disastrous would happen that day. With no adult supervision, the team lapses into dangerous conversation. NejiTenLee Team Gai friendship


It was a lovely morning, Lee decided, saluting his mother good-bye. He headed off to his team's training field, waving to all the passer bys.

Lee took pride in Konoha more than most people. And why shouldn't he be proud to be living in it? It was his home. The people were nice, the ninjas were formidable, and the economy was thriving.

Plus, his smile widened. His friends were all here.

Seeing one now, Lee ran up to him.

"Neji! It's a great day, isn't it?" asked Lee.

His teammate nodded at him. "…I guess." He faced straight ahead, keeping up a steady pace. Lee didn't expect any more from him. Neji wasn't the most talkative out of people. Hoping to fill the silence, Lee began humming.

Neji glanced at him strangely.. "Lee."

"Yeah?" he stopped, worrying that it was bothering Neji. On more than one occasion, his two teammates would remind him to keep his voice down. Lee himself never noticed, but apparently he was a loud person. Most of the time.

Neji drew his eyebrows together. It had been nagging his mind all day since he woke up. He had to tell somebody, and for the sake of pride, it was not going to be a Hyuuga. Lee just so happened to be a shock absorber for these kinds of things.

"I can't tell you what it is, but I think that something's going to happen today."

Lee jumped.

Neji's foresight was usually right!

"Is it good or bad?"

Neji picked his words out carefully. "I don't know…maybe bad. And I can't pinpoint whether it's going to happen today, exactly. But someday soon."

Neji and Lee stared at each other seriously. They reached the training spot in the woods. The two jumped tree branch by tree branch, pushing the impending disaster out of their minds.

Both paused when they heard sounds from where they training spot was. Both looked away, embarrassed, when they realized it was Tenten with her boyfriend.

Even though the guys didn't want to admit it, she had definitely gotten attractive over time. Pretty at thirteen, she was a stunner at fourteen.

Tenten smacked lips with him one last time before telling him that her teammates were coming any second now. He resisted for a while, but she finally shooed him away.

Neji and Lee stayed posted at their respective tree branches, hearing the scuffling of shoes. A tall teenager, dark skinned and sporting a chuunin vest, appeared on one of trees beside them. He smirked, drawing a grunt from Neji.

Then he disappeared as quickly as he had come.

The frustrated boys met Tenten a minute later. If she noticed they were pissed, she didn't say anything. It was surprising that they beat Gai there, but when he arrived with a hickey on his neck and smelled like he hadn't bathed, they kept their mouths shut.

Training was productive, as always. Team Gai ran laps, perfected techniques, and kicked ass in general. Tenten shaved her personal best and Lee punched a couple trees down in an impressive display of domino theory. Neji continued being perfect.

A few hours later, the exhausted trio had a break. Gai dutifully excused himself, citing he had some business, and left the three alone to enjoy their lunch.

"Tenten?" asked Lee around a mouth full of pizza. "Do you have a new boyfriend?"

She grinned proudly. It was her first chuunin boyfriend. AND he was seventeen. "Oh. Yeah. You saw him?"

"Dump him." commanded Neji rudely. He dabbed a napkin to his mouth daintily. "Arrogance like that is unbecoming of a ninja."

Tenten and Lee resisted the urge to say he was a hypocrite. "Why? What did he do to you?"

_Look at him funny_, thought Lee who was there. Trust that anything insignificant could and would set off the wrath of Neji.

"I am not at liberty to say," evaded Neji, who was disposing of his crumbs in the river. He sat down again and began meditating.

Tenten and Lee, realizing that he had dropped the subject, turned to more upbeat conversation. Lee gushed about his new baby sister, how she was so adorable, and how her dimples were just like Gai-sensei's. Tenten gushed about her new boyfriend, bragging that he was a chuunin and was better than her past seven boyfriends combined.

They finally lapsed into a comfortable silence when they had no more left to talk about.

"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Lee. He jumped up and grabbed a startled Tenten's shoulders.

"Neji says something bad is going to happen soon."

Tenten frowned. "Like what?"

Could he be anymore vague?

"I don't know, but you should keep your guard up."

"How are you so sure this isn't going to happen to just Neji? Maybe it won't affect us." she reasoned. Tenten was having a good day (with a certain someone), and she didn't want to think about anything ruining it.

"We all know Neji's good with this, um…"

Suddenly, a hawk swooped down and dropped a letter into Neji's lap. After it flew away, the three observed the letter's impressive stationary. It looked like it was sent from an official.

Neji tore it open from the envelope while Tenten and Lee fidgeted in the background. Could this be ill fated event Neji had predicted? What lay in the contents of that letter? The two's worst fears were confirmed when after reading, Neji began ripping the paper into shreds,

"What did it say?!" shouted Lee. Tenten hung behind, worry dampening on her features.

Neji glared at them. He glared past them, past the trees, past the houses in the village, past Naruto's big fat head, and finally into the Hyuuga compound miles away.

Somewhere, the Hyuuga elders shuddered.

"They're marring me off."

The whole world spun off its axis as Lee and Tenten tried to comprehend what Neji was telling them.

"You're fourteen!"

"I know."

"That's not fair!"

"I know."

The disbelief circled around Neji in a whirlwind as his teammates questioned the validity of such a statement. Neji being married was just too _weird._

"You've never liked a girl in your life!"

"I kn – actually, that is incorrect."

His friends leaned forward, eyes wide as dinner plates. "You've liked a girl?" whispered Tenten conspiratorially as if the whole notion was preposterous.

"Of course I have," replied an annoyed Neji. Just because he didn't show interest didn't mean he never had.

"WHO?!" Lee practically screamed.

Neji pointed.

Silence.

"ME?!" howled a disgusted Lee. He stumbled back a few steps, falling on his behind. From where he sat, Lee regarded his rival with mortified eyes.

"No!" barked Neji. He yelled the other boy for even entertaining the idea. Through his long tirade, Neji emphasized, with brutal seriousness, that he would never, _ever_ like Lee. Even in a million years.

He finally stood up and walked over to Tenten. "I was pointing at her."

"ME?!"

Neji was about to yell at Lee again but then realized that TENTEN had said it. His face fell, because even though he didn't like her anymore, it was still an affront to his dignity.

Tenten, regretting her words, tried to comfort Neji. "It's not you, it's - " Realizing she was about to say the dreaded cliché break up line, Tenten switched gears.

"- my boyfriend. I'm really attached to him, and, I can't really, er, think of other guys like that." She finished lamely.

"When was this?" wondered Lee, mystified.

"The Academy." answered Neji, sighing.

It was all done and over with. He just thought of her as a friend now. Neji found it was very uncomfortable to talk about this. After the invasion of Konoha, Team Gai became a very tight knit team. They told each other everything. Hence, why he admitted to liking Tenten. He knew there would've been some surprise, but nothing like _this._

"I should've never said anything." Neji muttered under his breath.

A rustle.

Neji and Tenten turned to look at Lee. He had picked picked himself up by this time and there were two suspicious spots of red on his face.

"I have a confession to make, too." Lee said quietly.

Here we go.

"I also had a crush on Tenten. When we were eleven."

Silence.

All of them didn't know what to say. Tenten, especially, was awestruck at her teammates' audaciousness. She could've gone through life without knowing that her two best friends once had crushes on her. Really.

"…thank you?" said Tenten unsurely.

The three awkward teenager stared down at the ground, shuffling their feet.

"Hey, who wants to eat ramen?!" Lee punched the air as if nothing had happened.

"I do." volunteered Neji, raising his hand. "Tenten, are you hungry?"

Without a beat, "I'm famished."

"Okay! Ichiraku, here we go!"

Tenten scampered after her teammates. She reflected quietly that it was best not to tell them that she liked both of them (not at the same time), JUST LAST YEAR.

It was a weird day for Team Gai. And as they sipped their ramen soup, all three of them silently swore to never speak of it again.


End file.
